John Dowland

Vivat Eliza!

The Schoole of Night

The fifteenth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In today’s episode we discuss three songs from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs (1600):
Time’s Eldest Sonne, Then Sit Thee Downe and When Others Sings

This work forms a triptych, and we shall seek to determine the narrative that underpins its three constituent songs.

Time’s Eldest Sonne
Then Sit Thee Downe
When Others Sings

from:
The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano & Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

…semper eadem…

The Schoole of Night

The fourteenth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In today’s episode we discuss a song from John Dowland’s First Booke of Songs (1597):

Deare, if you change, I’ll never chuse again…

What initially presents itself as a conventional love song is, upon closer examination, revealed to contain a veiled depiction of a constant, immutable, and in effect divine figure — Queen Elizabeth.

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Michael Havenstein

Radio Bremen
Sendesaal Bremen

Script: Frank Pschichholz, Maria Skiba

©The Schoole of Night 2025

Stella, fayrest Shepherdesse. Robert Dowland’s Musicall Banquet

The Schoole of Night

The 13th episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In this episode we talk about Robert Dowland’s collection of songs from 1610 – A Musicall Banquet and particularly about a song to the text of sir Philip Sidney – Goe My Flocke, go get you hence. The poem comes from Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, and the protagonists’ identities are revealed.

Goe my flocke, go get you hence

from:
Robert Dowland’s
A Musicall Banquet, 1610

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Renate Wolter-Seevers

Radio Bremen
Sendesaal Bremen

Script: Frank Pschichholz, Maria Skiba

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

The delight of solitarinesse

The Schoole of Night


In this episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen we will discuss the story behind a song from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs (1600) O sweet woods, the delight of solitarinesse, in which the Earl of Essex is in his ‘Wanstead Mood’.

O sweet woods, the delight of solitarinesse

from:
The Second Booke of Songs or Aires, 1600

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz – lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

Script: Frank Pschichholz, Maria Skiba

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025

JOHN DOWLAND: Stories from the Black Kitchen Episode VIII

The Schoole of Night

The eigth episode of Stories from the Black Kitchen. In this episode we talk about the song no. XX from John Dowland’s Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)

JOHN DOWLAND
Tosse Not My Soule

The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600

The Schoole of Night
Maria Skiba – soprano
Frank Pschichholz-lute

Recording: Julita Emanuiłow

Polskie Radio Dwójka

JOHN DOWLAND
Stories from the Black Kitchen

©The Schoole of Night 2025